The Triumph of Death
Sixteenth Session (13 page pdf) – “Painted Shadows” – Ansar’s paintings hide a dark secret; Wogan’s sister and nephew are kidnapped by the evil that lies on the other side of the Midnight Mirror.
The PCs go to see one of Ansar’s masterworks… And naturally it attacks. I use Pieter Bruegel’s “The Triumph of Death” as the visual. Ansar the glyph-bearing gendarme and disturbed painter gave in to the temptations of the shadows and is now a shadowy lurker from U1 Gallery of Evil, a shadow creature that can travel through paintings.
They burn the first painting and Ansar flies off with a “the child will be ours!” They run to the child Olga’s room in the temple but she’s fine. Then with a start Wogan realizes it might be his baby nephew the undead creature was talking about! After a sprint across town to the manor house they find out that indeed Anya and the baby have gone missing. And there’s an Ansar original in the basement.
The PCs and household go down there and get an even bigger setpiece battle. Painted night hags and kytons and undead! Ghosts and hounds and barons! It’s a fun time. Finally they take the bad guys all out but no Anya… U1 Gallery of Evil is all done but The Midnight Mirror is just cranking up.
The baron takes them to his study and explains that they’ve probably been taken into a shadow mirror artifact thing in the basement his family uses to make deals with a shae (shadow creature) Nidal style. He asks the PCs to get their shadows removed, go in there, and destroy the mirror from the inside. “That sounds sketchy as shit. OK.”
They go back down to the basement and think to check the dungeon and on its guard and inmate. They find Yuris and Isiem melded into a single piece of Kuthite art. Their bones are fused to the ceiling, their flesh hangs festively. Blood pools on the floor.
Baron Stephan says, “Ah.” He closes the door.
Next time, into the midnight mirror!
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